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Season 2 kickoff with Ashley Force-Hood

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Ashley Force-Hood and Erica Ortiz

You may remember a few months ago (where the heck is time going lately!) that I had a chance to sit down with NHRA Nitro Funny Car driver Ashley Force-Hood for some gal chat to kick off Season 2 of Horsepower & Heels TV…

Its been a hectic few months, but the folks at PNN just finalized the episode. Though I wish we could have included all 20 minutes of great insight from Ashley on a wide variety of topics, PNN and I chose to give some insight to viewers from Ashley into the very unique side of being a woman at the races.

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

Sad day in history

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Today marks a very sad day in my racing world.

American Autosports, the longtime producer of the legendary Fun Ford Weekend Series and more recently Battle of the Brands, has just announced that due to current economic climate, they have ceased operations.
Fun Ford Weekend began in 1991 and spearheaded the Ford Drag Racing movement that gave so many of us a great competitive place to race. We watched PRO 5.0 grow from just a 10 second class into the low 6’s at over 200mph, Outlaw from true 10.5″ 9 and 8 second rides, into the high 6 second class on 10.5W’s that rivaled the Pro from just a few years back, and huge advancements in Renegade, Warrior, Drag Radial, and my favorite, True Street.
Fun Ford Weekend is where I cut my teeth drag racing, starting in the Street Bracket. From there, I moved into True Street, where I won my first race at Gainesville in 2002. With the addition of a drag radial class in 2003, I runnered-up in my first heads-up race, became the first woman in FFW to break the 8 second barrier on a drag radial, and runnered-up for my first championship. In 2006, I moved up to Pro 5.0, becoming the first and only woman to pilot a 6 second, 200 mph car in Fun Ford history. I runnered-up for the Pro 5.0 championship as well that year as a rookie in PRO 5.0. Fun Ford Weekend made me what I am today, and I’m eternally grateful for everything I learned all those years and all the people who made racing with FFW so much fun.

 

But, in additon to that, it created a home for a huge family of people, a tight group of the very best friends I will ever have. Unlike the stringent and regulated NHRA/IHRA events, Fun Ford events were filled with commraderie and fun, and some of the best times happened after the racing was finished for the day.
I’m sad that we no longer have FFW/Battle of the Brands to bring us together, and hope that all of my racing counterparts still continue on somewhere when this mess of an economy picks itself up and dusts off.
Thanks to Bill & Cheryl Alexander, Crystal, George and the rest of the FFW crew for a decade (and more) of priceless memories!

We will miss you!

Gainesville NHRA and Ashley Force-Hood

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Ashley Force and Erica Ortiz sit down and chat for Horsepower & Heels TV

Its been over a week since I got back from a great trip to the 40th Annual NHRA Gator Nationals, and I’m just catching up enough to sit down for an update.

What a great trip! The Gator Nationals have become a semi-traditional trip for me, being the first east coast race of the season, and my first chance to get away and “smell the nitro” for the year.
As usual, the trip kicks off at the Gainesville Ale House on Thursday night, with a chance to catch up to many of my racing friends and a few personal friends from home that come up for the weekend from Orlando.
But the highlight of this year’s trip was my opportunity on Friday morning to visit with Ashley Force courtesey of JFR PR pro Elon Werner. I met Elon through the new @JFR_Racing twitter campaign, and he invited me out to chat with Ashley in the pits. The JFR Twitter accounts allows fans to follow the instant team updates throughout the weekend to get a “behind the scenes” feel from the races in real-time.
(Check out my growing list of Drag Racing Twitter Accounts for other team updates)
Right now, Ashley is living the dream of a lot of us women racers in the PRO leagues of drag racing, being one of the few women competing this year in the NHRA. The advancement of women in racing is a passion of mine, so I was very eager to sit down with the top gal in our sport for some insight into what its like out there with the Big Boys. Ashley is in her third year as a professional Nitro Funny Car racer with her father’s premiere funny car team. She’s had incredible success as a racer, and is an inspiration to many.
Armed with my Horsepower & Heels TV Cam, I spent about 20 minutes with Ashley in her driver’s lounge chatting about what its been like for her as a woman out on the circuit and how she’s progressed through the ranks to reach professional status. PNN and I are now sorting through the editing, and we’ll be kicking off Season 2 of Horsepower & Heels TV with this insightful look at the leading lady in NHRA Nitro Funny Car.
Stay tuned for more coming soon!!!

2009 Gator Nationals

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The 2009 NHRA Gator Nationals are back in Gainesville, FL this weekend, and as is tradition now, I will be attending from Thursday-Sunday.
I’m even MORE excited to go this year, because I have a few exciting meetings lined-up during the course of the weekend, and a few surprises in store for Horsepower and Heels.com when I get back! I can’t mention anything yet, but believe me, its a *BIG* surprise!’
If you’ll be at the Gator’s, I invite you to stop by the Nitromater.com meet ups on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10am in front of the Nitro Mall. Or, come out to the Gainesville Ale House Thursday night for the traditional NHRA party.
Keep an eye on my Twitter updates for some real-time commentary on the race too!

Halloween NHRA style

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Racers have a good sense of humor.

Check out this shot taken by Mark Rebilas at the NHRA Las Vegas race during Halloween weekend.


This is Justin Humphrey’s Pro Stock crew member dressed as a matador with Justin’s car being the bucking bull….

A perfect costume if you ask me!

Also, I understand that Jack Beckman was running around the staging lanes dressed as Ricky Bobby, but I haven’t found photographic evidence of it yet. Anyone catch a pic??

Happy Halloweenie!

Rocket City Nationals

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To kick off a great Independence Day weekend, I headed straight over to the track after work on Thursday for the Rocket City Nationals at Huntsville Dragway. Being that my car still isn’t done, I wanted to help out Greg Hines with his new 69 Nitrous Pro Mod Camaro and Mike Teilking with his Limited Street Mustang. Plus, a local racer, Alan Parker, has just finished putting together his Mustang, and has been talking to me about shaking it down for him. I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to make it this weekend, but I had all my gear in tow.

Turns out, he didn’t make the haul with the car (bummer), but that’s okay….I don’t really like being at the track unless I am racing or I can help out, which is another reason I think I have much more fun at these type events versus a National event. So I volunteered on parachute duty for Greg, and offered a hand anywhere else they needed it.

 

Greg ended up running really well, with a 4.22. He made it to the Semi-Finals, where he ran another 4.22, but this time, the chutes were not out, and the car was bouncing trying to stop and left the shut off area. I thought I was going to throw-up when I saw them not come out, and I felt sick as we rushed down to the top end to see Greg off in the grass and spun around, the front end cracked up pretty good. Brand new beautiful car, and the chutes I packed had failed. I was almost in tears as we towed it back to the pits.
They took a look at it, and found out that the problem was in the air launchers that he was using, and nothing due to my packing them. Thank GOD! I was devastated that such a pretty car had been scratched up, and was so shaken that Greg could’ve been (But thankfully, wasn’t) hurt. I don’t think I could’ve lived with myself if it were something I caused. After a loooong night in the pits, I headed home around 2 am and was back up at 8am to go back to the track.

 

Friday, Greg had some problems getting down the track. The heat probably played into that, but he ended up losing the final from the night before, and not making the 8 car promod field. Still, a runner-up finish isn’t bad for the 4th pass on a brand new car!

 

Meanwhile, over at Mike Teilking’s, luck wasn’t so great either. We discovered on Friday morning that there were some problems with the torque converter and it caused a hurt piston, and since their engine builder (Pilcher Automotive) was right next door, they decided to save the trip down to Enterprise and get the motor pulled and disassembled for them to take with them home and fix. So, I got to work on Friday to help Wendell and Mike get the engine out and tore down. I really miss being able to get my hands dirty sometimes, so I had a blast with Mike and Wendell all day. We had the motor out of the car in just a few hours, and had it down to just the crank and block by mid-afternoon. Another late night, and I didn’t see my pillow until after 1am.

 

Saturday morning, I got back up and picked up Mike to take him to back to the track to get his trailer and to help Greg and Wayne take down their awning. This is the kind of racing I miss, and am excited for some things working in the pipeline for me to be back in action soon! It may not be NHRA or Top Fuel, but it is definitely a part of my life that I feel like I have been missing a lot lately!

 

Look for more soon on a new website I will be working on for Teilking Racing!(www.teilkingracing.com) Mike’s got a strong Limited Street car, and I’m excited to build him a cool website to show it off more!

 

St. Louis NHRA

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Mondays after race weekends are tough. Especially when you have to drive 6+ hours after a long weekend.

This past weekend, I drove up to St. Louis to attend the 28th Annual MidWest NHRA Nationals at Gateway International Raceway with some friends. Though I had many times been to Gateway for the World Street (Ford) Challenge, I hadn’t ever seen an NHRA race there.

Friday was nice and warm, with plenty of good racing. But Saturday, the temperature plummeted and the wind was fierce, delivering the chill straight through you. We looked like a bunch of shivering puppies. It is difficult to be at races when you have been sidelined like I have for so long now, but it definitely helps to network and motivates to keep the progress going on my car.

Elizabeth and Ashley hadn’t ever attended a drag race before, so its neat seeing their reaction to their first Top Fuel encounters. The power of a nitro car cannot be appreciated or understood until you actually see, smell, and FEEL one in person. TV, HD or not, just doesn’t do it justice. Ashley said they weren’t too loud when they were doing burnouts (we were sitting at the 1/8th mile) but when they passed her under power, she hit the deck!

Its a long trip to St. Louis, and I’ll be repeating this trip in just a few weeks for Debbie’s race, the World Street Challenge.

Gator Nationals Day 4: Sunday Recap

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Great eliminations day! More beautiful FL sunshine left me more than a little sunburned, but I still had a great time! Even though Melanie Troxel didn’t qualify, the rest of the girls did pretty good! Gotta support that girl power!

We watched Scott Kalitta warming up the funny car, and it is surreal. You should see his face as he wops the throttle. Its the most intense thing…. he definitely gets pumped up!

Unfortunately, my good buddy Ben had some family emergencies come up, so he and Leanne ended up leaving early. I hitched a ride home with my friend Sarah and her dad, who live in Columbus, GA and then headed the rest of the way home Monday morning.